War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Book Review
By Charlie Lincoln
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Book Review — January 18, 2023
Started this book January 4, 2023 and finished it January 16, 2023
Edit: January 31, 2023 — It seems nothing could be more prescient. The New Yorker recently published an article about reading Russian literature in this current time of war in Ukraine and the political climate. This is a link to the article:
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/rereading-russian-classics-in-the-shadow-of-the-ukraine-war
- There was no explicit reference to Tolstoy’s War & Peace but the article did discuss Tolstoy. Here is a quote from the article referencing Tolstoy:
Now I dug up my old copy of “Hadji Murat” and reread the pages set at a newly opened theatre in Tiflis, where Hadji Murat stoically endures the first act of an Italian opera. The description of him limping into the theatre in his turban recalls the scene in which Anna Karenina, wearing a rich lace headdress, defies social norms by appearing at the opera in St. Petersburg. Will the Russian viceroy protect Hadji Murat’s family? Will Karenin grant Anna a divorce? Considered side by side, the operas of Tiflis and St. Petersburg seemed to become more than the sum of their parts — as when two photographs, taken from different angles and viewed stereoscopically, cause a three-dimensional image to spring from the page. The hidden mechanisms of patriarchy and expansionism suddenly came into focus as two facets of the same huge apparatus. What other aspects of the “universal” Russian novel might be visible from a trip to the former imperial peripheries?”
- Source: The New Yorker magazine: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/rereading-russian-classics-in-the-shadow-of-the-ukraine-war
I finally ended up reading War and Peace in early 2023. I’m not sure it was necessarily a New Year’s resolution but it was something that I have been thinking about reading for over 10 years. I remember my writing professor in undergrad at Harvard had suggested this book in the context of waiting. She said sometimes you have to wait and you have to be patient and how you wait for things. She said he just need to go there and wait for an interview for a job and might as well bring the book war and peace by Leo Tolstoy to start reading indicating that you have the most time available. I think she also said that in the context of caring a book around everywhere, you go. Because you can get a lot of reading done.
It’s interesting to me. I have kept a list of books that I’ve been reading. And I think I almost have a complete list of the books that I have read in my life. I try to bring the list back to elementary school. Certainly there are few books that probably have slipped through. But it’s interesting to me that in recent years I have been dipping into Leo Tolstoy a little bit at a time around the beginning of the year. For example in 2019 I ended up reading what is art by Leo Tolstoy in the beginning of the year. It was a book that I had considered reading for quite some time. I remember I picked up a copy of it at the Barnes & Noble in orange county that I visited. I don’t remember exactly where in Orange County California this was. But it was before I went to St. John’s College in Annapolis Maryland. One comment and memory I have about that Barnes & Noble is that I had it upstairs and I believe this book was specifically located upstairs and there was an escalator at the Barnes & Noble. I know that’s not incredibly descriptive. But there certainly are Barnes & Noble‘s that only have one floor. So that might narrow it down a bit. I think at one point I found it on Google maps. I digress. But it is an interesting representation of the memories that I have with Leo Tolstoy.
Regarding the overall reading journey. I think it is relevant to say that I have been dipping into Leo Tolstoy here in their overtime. And it is one of the great books of western history especially in relation to Mortimer Adler in the great book series. So it’s just another book that I sincerely have wanted to refer at least going on 12 1/2 years since I was at St. John’s College in Annapolis Maryland.
Some of the scenes that stuck out to me in the book were the scenes of the Russian general kneeling before the icon that had been taken from the Russian city of Smolensk. That icon met quite a bit to me because I had seen pictures of the sale Tokos icon and Russians kneeling before it at the battle of Borodino. So in some sense that was a very interesting representation to me of a unique Orthodox event that had occurred in history. Indeed I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a large icon. I don’t think it’s exactly clear how largely icon is described at the battle of Borodino.
It’s interesting also to note that there was a lot of commotion around the battle of Borodino. In connection with my friend Jack Dulgarian, I had been discussing the battle of Borodino for a few years now. We have course they’ll talk about it on a daily basis but it is something that comes up in the context of Greek, Russian, byzantine history as well as history related to the Orthodox Church. So I think it’s very interesting it represents someone a clash of different religious cultures with respect to Napoleon and his forces especially considering that Napoleon took the crown from the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, and crowned himself or I suppose as it’s the pictures Napoleon took the crown from the pope and gave it to Josephine who is kneeling in that famous portrait that I have seen several times in my life and have a magnet from the Louvre museum in Paris. It’s just sort of a special moment that certainly was representative of a certain type of propaganda that Napoleon and his cadre put together.
The beginning of the book mini has described is very slow but I think there is something to be said metaphorically and allegorically about the ballroom dancing and how everyone is dancing. I think it’s a really beautiful representation but it also I think it’s metaphorical and represents an analogy to other parts of the book. It’s also representative of the complex relations that exist in the world and in life. There really is a beautiful type of love that exists whether it is actually romantic love or not.
Another scene that stuck out to me “if that was the masonic ritual that is described in affirmative detail. It’s very interesting to me that Tolstoy was aware of these details. I wonder if Tolstoy himself was a mason but I was unable to determine that just based on reading Wikipedia. I have not done a more extensive search on that. And it is interesting to consider that this was a Russian derivation of the masonic ritual that existed in early 1 Russia. Of course there is quite a bit of discussion about Freemasonry and there seems to be some trouble in relation to the French coming to occupy in Moscow and Napoleon ostensibly seems to be in cahoots with a masonic conspiracy. Brigette I think that’s more of a conspiracy and it’s not exactly clear that Napoleon is actually a conspiracy with the freemasons. In any case it doesn’t seem to be a good opportunity for Pier and it helps his personal development in a falls in line with a lot of the enlightenment ideals that the air ends up espousing. And it does seem to help him as individuals move from his more parties including lifestyle of drinking and having the company of lots of women to help and lots of individuals. Even at one point he sort of goes to go visit other freemasons to get more secrets in to improve the fraternity. But I don’t know if that’s an allegory or an analysis of how one might think freemasonry is very good and then later on I think it’s so good. I will enter this paragraph here talking about freemasonry Justin mentioned that Pierre in French moonstone and of course that probably has some unique reference to freemasonry. I don’t know if Leo Tolstoy intentionally made that connection but it is an interesting connection.
Granted the Napoleonic invasion of France likely was not connected with freemasonry but it is interesting to consider that Leo Tolstoy suggests or has one of the characters suggest that others at the time thought that there was a connection to Freemasonry. I don’t think there was but certainly their work French freemasons and they may have played a part as Astoria Neil Ferguson as outlined in his book the tower about secret societies providing meeting places for people to discuss revolutionary about this. I haven’t read that book by Neil Ferguson but it does seem relevant that He would’ve discuss this in my contacts the freemasons providing a secret place for people to discuss revolutionary ideas. I have not read the book but it would make sense that he might’ve discuss the French revolution.
It’s also interesting to me that I ended up having a dream recently about Anastasia from the Romanov family. As an Orthodox person, it’s sometimes curious to have dreams about martyrs or saints. I’m not entirely sure what it meant but there were several horses in my thoughts and mind such a season five of the crown Queen Elizabeth had relationships with the Romanov family in the context of Queen Victoria. But also Prince Philip mentions that he was orthodox prior to preparing to married Queen Elizabeth. Also the night before I had the dream, I saw a video with Michael from Vsauce talking about the history of selfies. And Anastasia was one of the people taking selfies. So I think all of those influences including the idea that I was reading one of the pivotal pieces of Russian literature and Indian world literature led me to having this dream about Anastasia. But I don’t know really what it means. But it is curious to think about that and I ended up reading a little bit about the family as well I don’t think I ever had a saint come up in my dream before. I had this dream the night before the king of Greece passed away. It might even be better to say the former king of Greece and respect to king Constantine II.
I am dictating part of this and it ended up happening that I lost some of the dictation that I was dictating into the notes on my phone as I was driving. But I had mentioned up above that I was curious about the occupation French occupation of Moscow in relation to the book. It certainly an interesting seeing. Pierce seems to end up making quite a few interesting friends and the Frenchman ends up befriending him. It’s certainly just an interesting seen and itself. One wonders how history might’ve been different is Napoleon was successful in invading Russia .
Overall one of the most interesting aspects about the book is Leo Tolstoy‘s theory of history where individuals are considered to be pivotal courses and important in world history especially in the context of differentiating that with the great theory of the great man of history. I think Tolstoy actually really makes an important distinction there. Napoleon kick the man his troops but there is no indication that anyone will follow him. There are so many different factors involved. I would like to look more into that. I actually spent quite a bit of time working on a footnote that was decently long in the book that I ended up writing the dialectical path of law that focuses on the theory of history. Indeed there might be a sublation of historical analysis with respect to Leo Tolstoy‘s theory of history. That is to say that it might seem at first that the great man theory of history is the commanding one but ultimately it might turn out that there is another there in history that takes into account the multifarious and multitudinous interpretations and iterations of history. So that’s some thing that has been curious to me for quite some time ever since the summer of 2013 when a girlfriend from St. John’s was in between her junior year in her senior year and she ended up having to read that summer for her first week back at St. John’s.
© Charles Edward Andrew Lincoln IV
